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popculturebuffet · 2 years

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Hatchetfield Retrospective: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals: I Mean What The Fuck?

SPOILER WARNING FOR ALL HATCHEFIELD PRODUCTIONS PRE-NERDY PRUDES MUST DIE

CONTENT WARNING: MENTIONS OF SUICIDE

Hello all you happy people and tonight we're gonna chronicle a story so astronomical, though thankfully not the last remaining story to tell as I celebrate spooky season by kicking off a look at one of the best new horror franchises to pop up. While I took a brief look at this series back in 2020 with the first episode of nightmare time, I think it's time I booked an extended stay in the tiny town of Hatchetfield for a full on retrospective. So get your cups of roasted coffee, pre-order that Tickle Me Wiggly, book your tickets to Watcher World and roll a fatty bowl of Perky's Buds as I take a look at this weird, wonderful world of horror, comedy, showstopping numbers and telling Clivesdale to rightly go fuck itself with the first stop on our tour, the musical that started it all by ironically being about a guy who doesn't much care for them. A Brief History of Starkid and Hatchetifield

So before we get to the horrifying tale of life becoming a musical, we need to look at the weirdos behind the curtain of this wonderful series of plays, zoomcasts and I assume tales Nick Lang shouts to his brother over zoom at 3 in the morning we might see someday, Starkid Productions Aka Team StarKid aka "Aren't those the guys who made that weird harry potter musical?". Most of you are well aware of who they are and their rough history, most of you also likely better than I but since I like to keep these reviews accessible and since some of my audience read whatever I put out regardless of if they gave one pigfart about it going in

It all began at the University of Michigan, GO BLUE! I don't have a connection to it myself but after watching about 80 hours of dead meat you start doing that on reflex. It was here while reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire a nerd by the name of Nick Lang wondered "hey woudln't it be funny if Draco bullied hermione because he liked her" This lead to this group writing the song granger danger, and deciding "Hey this could make a fun musical". Hence a Very Potter Musical was born. Nick asked his buddy Darren Criss to use some of his songs (One from a previous project Little White Lie), which snowballed into Darren both doing a lot of the music and playing Harry Freaking Potter himself.

What was supposed to be a fun goofy side project by a bunch of dedicated nerds became an internet sensation and thus Team StarKid was born, deciding they could keep this going: staging musicals at school then throwing them up online for other nerds. Naturally another Harry Potter musical followed and finding out abotu these and devouring the soundtracks, a twelve years younger and less sad but far more unteitonally creepy towards women me found thees musicals, laughed his ass off and was a fan from that day forward. While I wouldn't watch the next few shows I would listen to the soundtracks and followed starkid for a bit.

While the team would face the setback of Darren moving on to Glee, which I was watched at the time so at least I got to hang on to him even as he hung ont o a show slowly falling off the earth and into it's molten core where the lava men tore ita part piece by piece, it still held firm, moving on to musicals about Sentient Genitals, space bugs wanting to break the status quo, the goddamn batman wanting to be somebody's buddy, Achmed the tiger fucking man, an interquel for star wars that's also an inspiring 80's movie, waking up with mud on your dick and not wanting to do the work today. All were anchored by goofy alternate takes on the characters they were parodying, suprising amoutns of heart, a talented if sometimes shifting crew, and of course Nick Lang, who along with his rarely seen because he shy and now he in kanas brother matt, wrote the musicals and Nick directed a few himself.

So naturally when Nick decided to relocate to LA, in part because some of the troupe like longtime member and certified Chad Joey Richter were already there and likely to shake things up, half the troupe went with him and the other stayed behind, amicably parting ways and with Merdith Stephin, who'd been a big part of things returning with their partner for VHS Christmas Carol later and the upcoming Jangle Ball tour. Sadly they soon lost another member as long time Starkid and sex machine Joe Walker retired from acting. So in a tight spot with half the troupe gone, Nick decided to swing for the fences and thus decided to shift genres slightly: from goofy parody comedy's with heart (and the occasional original), to an intrictatley built shared horror comedy multiverse. After spitballing a lot of ideas for the setting, Hatchetfield was born and three ideas for musicals came out of it mostly formed: Nerdy Prudes Must Die, Black Friday.. and this very one. Despite coming third in ideas, TGWDLM was decided to be the first of the series, to test to see if audiences would take to it with it's accessible premise.

The result.. was a massive hit, ushering in a new era of starkid, fresh fans, and a return to prominence after it dimmed somewhat. Hatchetfield gave the group new life, and over time they've picked up even more members and came out swinging stronger than ever, having done Black Friday the year after, spun the franchise off into the webcast series nightmare time during the height of the pandemic, and now going into it's third musical next year with Nerdy Prudes Must Die. As I write this it's kickstarter is still going and has reached it's goal, but to help the Lang Shang A Langs reach their stretch goal i'm offering you a deal: For every three of you starkids who sends me a screenshot of you either pledging or upping your pledge (I myself can't go over 5) I promise to review another starkid musical at some point beyond the Hatchetfield Series, starting at the back with A Very Potter Musical and going up, and to sweeten the pot if you hit them all i'll also cover the tin can bros productions too. So if you want a lot of nostalgia, cringing and jokes at a Transphobes expense while supporting a work that is very much everything she isn't, my ask box is open.

Hatchetfield means a lot to me: I ran into it in 2020 just as my love of horror was really ramping up, having really loved the trailer for Black Friday and watching TGWDLM first in case I needed to see it. Which you can watch either on their own, their both standalone works but it works better in order given the crowd pops any time something from TGWDLM gets referenced. It got me back into starkid and while I still need to crawl through the massive backlog of shows i've missed, what i've found is wonderful and i've found these wonderful PEIPS have kept going and kept an honest to god comradery and love for one another that's commendable. And it was thanks to that I got to feel that love again. See how these people had grown and gotten even awesome with time as we talk about the man whose name is in the title whose destined to go viral and the waking nightmare he finds himself in. A Story So Astronomical

Before we can open this musical's tummy and get into it's blue guts, we have to get down to brass tacks nad break down what exactly happened here.

TGWDLM is the story of Paul Matthews, an average man living an average life as an office drone in Hatchetfield. He spends his days with Bill, his struggling single dad best friend whose desperate to reconnect with his daughter, Ted, the office walking erection who dosen't seem to get Paul wants nothing to do with him , and Charlotte, a meek and saddeningly frazzled woman whose in a loveless failing marriage to her cop husband , having an affair with Ted to try the fill the void. Working hard for the mildly obnoxious Bill Lumberg impersonator Mr. Davidson, Pauls' only real refuge is Beanies, a local cafe that makes a nice carmel frappe and more importantly to Paul, employs his crush Emma, a cynical barista who hates the place's musical gimmick understandably as while unlike Paul I LOVEEEEEEEEEEE musicals, minimum wage food service jobs are already draining and obnoxious, adding being forced to sing to it no matter how tired you are or obnoxious the customer sounds like my own personal hell.

Also around are a green piece girl who in trying to brush her off Paul pisses off instead, a man in a hurry, and Peter who badly needs his hot chocolate for his low blood sugar. I can relate to peter. Can't wait to properly meet him when I get around to watching Abstinance Camp. Yes folks I'm that behind on Nightmare Time Season 2, you may boo. Soundtrack's dope though.

Things quickly change though when a meteor crash lands on the starlight theater, and the next day in excellent horror fashion Paul slowly notices something… just isn't right, starting with a whole ass group musical number. We'll get to the songs in their own sectoin much like Starkids closest spirtual cousin the muppets, and it soon esclates to being forced to sit there while his boss grins like ti's the ending credits of pearl and tells Paul how he wants his wife to choke him out at night while Paul slowly dies inside in real time.

Paul starts to grasp the implications of everything having turned into a musical and infected everyone, but it takes Emma a moment… till she finds her boss and coworker, now also part of the extradimensional hive mind, poisoning their customers mid-musical number and planning to infect her too. Our heroes barely escape through some human shaped bushes and Emma finally grasps the implications.

They thankfully find other survivors in Bill, Ted and Charlotte, though that's all the good news they have: Downtown's been swarmed and when Charlotte calls her husband for help.. and instead gets a musical number about how their cops and they make sense

Our heroes, like most citzens barely survive their encounter with the cops, scarring them off after Ted brains Sam's brains out of his head with a trash can lid. Needing help and with the hospital being downtown at the heart of the swarm, our heroes instead go to Emma's kooky college instructor Professor Hidgens, the star of the show and a survivalist fringe scientist who foresaw this exact sort of apocalypse and thus built up his estate on the edge of town to be ready for it, including booze. I mean what's an apocalypse if you can't get hammered right? I don't drink but I feel the apocalypse is one of those "code red" situation where even if you don't, you need to get blazed anyway. Liked if Keith David dies. I'm still convinced he's immortal but in a year that's been constantly punching me in the dick via Warner Bros Discovery, i've learned not to take anything for granted.

So Paul and Emma get closer and get all snuglay, Bill threatens to kick Ted in the head, and soon Charlotte makes things far worse after Sam singing the only bad song in the musical at her somehow dosen't make her run screaming but gets her to free him. We then get one of the best as the Hive gets fed up with the soft touch and just plans to murder them all, but in horror rock paper scissors "guy with the gun" beats monster anytime, and Hidgens saves them. Our party ends up having to split as stupid as that sounds as Bill finds out Alice is still in town and in downtown, so he and Paul go to save her, Emma stays behind at Hidge's instince to disect the corpses and Ted stays because wellll

Though he DOES point out there likely isn't an Alice left and this is a suicide mission

And I do mean sad as they find Alice already infected and proceding to sing a whole song about how her dad sucks dirty ass in thunderstorms, how it's his fault she ended up here, and pressing every parental parent button and insecurity bill has. The poor guy reaches for a gun as a result and luckily, Paul, in an incredibly heartbreaking scene, talks his friend out of such.

Unfortunately neither of them in the state they were in thought to WATCH said gun so Bill dies seconds later and it's only the military showing up that prevents Paul from sharing the same fate. While Paul gets a gun butt to the head, Emma gets some MMMMM Drugs and wakes up tied to a chair, with Ted likewise. I mean he's into it but he's gotta be asked first. It's just common courtsey. Turns out Hidgens is on the creatures side.. he's not hived but the idea of a musical seeming utopia where everyone is happy, ther'es no traffic accidents, the trains run on time , is wonderful and plans to lure the aliens here. How he does it is with one of the best piecs in musical theater. We'll again get to that later, but thankfully our heroes manage to escape while the hive is distracted with Hidgens and opens his tummy.

Paul might have a way out though as the Miltary Man he meets is the gruff but loveable and resonable John Macnamara, who works for PEIP, your standard issue extranormal government organization that covers weird shit like this. HIs orders are to murder anyone he sees and let god sort out the corpses, but

And gives Paul an out, especailly after hearing how sweet he is on emma: he has a few hours to grab her, GET TO THE CHOPPA, and escape before they nuke the place as god intented. Well the Judeo-Christian god. The god with a thumb in this pie wants a musical apocalypse.

Paul gets back to the others with the news and allows Ted to come. This goes as badly as you'd expect as Ted tries betraying them and taking the chopper himself

Naturally given this is a horror work, this gets Ted killed by the hive who already have McNamara and a few of his PEIPS by the time he gets there. They sing a very unsbtle and unsettling song while our heroes barely escape.. only to get further proof that Pokey isn't the only god who hates Paul as it turns out the pilot is Hive!Zoey who crashes, leaving Paul as the only thing that MIGHT be able to stop this: Hidge , as reinfieldy as he was, theroized the meteor, the source of the Blue Shit and thus the hive, must be the hive queen. Blowing it up real good might be a good shot

What follows is more soul destruction… seriously when I first watched this only being familiar with the earlier starkid works, I had no idea the emotoinal punch in the scrotum I was in for, as Paul gets infected and has to fight his inner depressiona nd the hive and seemingly wins, blowing up the theater and seemingly the hive.

Emma survives, and is reunited with Paul and is happy.. for about 5 seconds. In a tragic and horrifying twist ending Paul survived, everyone else apparently did too… and Emma is left to scream futilely in horror for help as her fate is left uncertain and the world… is left to be united by a singular voice, who in a deep void far away laughs musically having finally gotten his leading man.

Scary If You Think of the Implications

So you might of noticed with the synopsis the tone of the musical: Nick was very clever here as he likely knew both people coming in from other starkid works and people who came in fresh, like my friend @jess-the-vampire who I got to join the hive here and at least interested in checking out more of Hatchetfield and starkid, Twisted in particular since we're both big into disney and the idea there was an entire number about the guy who showed up all of once to have a tiger bite his ass made her laugh, would expect this to be way goofier than it was. Even I despite spoiling myself on how it ended before I watched it, wasn't prepared.

TGWDLM is still a comedy to it's bones, with both great jokes I remembered vividly from the first time like the ENTIRETY of what do you want paul (I struggled not to loose my damn shit the first time I heard Davidson say he wanted his wife to choke him while he jerked off while Paul prayed for death but death won't come in the background), "Kick your head" (With Corey and Joey absolutely killing me, especially Joey as Ted hams it up to high heaven),Ted's love of workin boys, Working Boys itself, "I'm professor hidgens!' and more, as well as a few I forgot like "I don't want to die in your filthy presbeterian church", Jon's impecable background acting, and "He didn't want to go like this. He wanted to do what he loved: getting choked by his wife while he masturbates!". It's also delightfully meta with every song being some form of standard brand of Musical song, something i'll break down more when we get to the songs themselves.

It strikes a good tone for a horror comedy: the situation is rediculous enough to generate tons of laughs, but also still GENUINELY horrifying and heartwrenching. It dosen't forget it's either. It's not the depth either as character depth is something that dates back to Very Potter which somehow turned Voldermort from pure unrelnting horrifying evil to a guy whose still evil but also struggles with his sexuality and missing his partner. No what catches you off guard, is the horror. With Horror Comedy you can vary a lot. Take the Chucky Franchise for instance. 2 is a horror comedy, but still leans heavier on the horror aspect, with Chucky still taken dead seriously despite now cracking one liners, Bride leans more into the camp and gore, and Seed just went full on insanity and camp with no real horror to be found apart from Chucky's treatment of his own family. You can vary in just how much you have. TGWDLM strikes me as where the franchise is now: it takes itself seriously, but isn't afraid to still throw jokes in there for contrast or just for fun, being dead serious when it needs to be and hilarious when it doesn't, and sometimes mixing the two.

The premise on paper sounds goofy but like Paul says it's when you think of the implications it gets bad and the show does a great job of doing this: When the Hive first shows up in "La Dee Da Day", it's goofy and played for laughs: it' is mildy creepy everyone's acting like it's a musical, but it's mostly funny for Paul's utter confusion, the homeless man talking about how he "used to want to kill them all while high on bath salt zombie drugs snacking on a dead mans face" and even as dark as THAT gets Paul's horrified flat what brings it right back around.

It's only when Charlotte gives a monologue about how sam not sounding like himself in the shower really underved her that it starts to get serious, but the next scene shifts back to comedy.. while uppping the discomfort. Now the Hive is directly trying to convert paul, and while it's done in the most hilarious manner possible, the grin splattered on Davidsons face, the fact he can't remember what he wanted once he stops singing, and the clear instiance of him joining them are unsettling And then.. we get the coffee shop scene. This is why I say it' sby design: the langs knew audience expectations.. .probably figured the horror part woudln't be a true factor here.

Instead what starts being only mildly unsettling (Emma unknowingly singing with what the audeince can tell are hive infected co workers).. only for it to slowly ramp up: they perform complicated manuvers she wasn't ready for and when she tries to quit.. they tel lher she can't.. and then in a cheery monotone explain they POISONED everyone else and gladly sing while several people die aorund them are are reborn with a singular voice. The terror on Emma's face combined with the various patrons going from choking to death to slowly JOINING IN one by one on the how do you do.. it's truly impressive and not being a sfamiliar with the fandom if we haven't talked about how great this scene is before we damn well should.

We get one last respite with show me your hands but from then on the comedy almost never comes from the hive again, something that didn't hit me till just now: the rest of the comedy comes from Sensei Bill, show stopping numbers and other things with only the "All your friends are here" bit in the climax being a hive involved joke. It shows the Hive's slow evolution horrifically as it goes from bumblingly comedic if still horrifying, From here on it WEAPONZIES our heroes despairs hopes and needs: it prays on Charlotte's desperate desire both for her husband to live and for him to actually love her again, turning her. It prays on Bill's love of his daughter to lure him and his difficulties as a parent to utterly destroy him, it uses PEIP and the helicopter to nearly kill emma, uses Paul's last ditch plan to infect him.. and uses him to twist the knife one last time fo rour ending. Every time our heroes have hope the Hive uses it against them, which gets more ingenious when you think about how most horror works, including a lot of the other hatchetfield stories, go: Even if our heroes may loose eventually the ones who survive or at least make it to the end don't give up, keeping going, and use hope, determination and grit to survive. Here the Hive uses that AGAINST them. It's again where the balance is effective: when you stop to think about it, this work is ENTIRELY bleak, but thanks to the comedy you don't. It only hits you later when you have no escape from it, just as our heroes have no escape from The Hive, Pokey.. or themselves.

Production wise TGWDLM is stripped down, and by design: with a new tone, new cast members and a new venue, the StarKids had a lot to work out with this one, so the costumes are the simple kinds they could rent or make cheapley, the effects are minimal, the blue shit very clearly being homeade slime, sam's brain apparently falling out repdatedly during one performance and most other things being pantomimed, and the set is even more so, simply some colored lights on cube.

It works perfectly though: the lack of props in places like typewriters in the helicopter and elsewhere is played ENTIRELY for laughs, and the lack of detail in places like the cups of poisoned coffee or hidgens getting his stomach torn to pieces leaves it to the audeince to imagine just how horrific those things are. Sometimes what you can make a persons mind do can surpass what your budget can, a staple of horror. It's no shock one of Hatchetfields primary influences is the similarly cheap for it's first two instalments evil dead franchise, with Rami's tenants of horror not only guiding the stories here but ending up as part of the cannon later. While StarKid is FAR from strangers of stretching a budget, TGWDLM is easily the second most impressive example of that with only nightmare time, operating on nothing for it's first season as far as I could tell surpassing it. That leaves us with the acting and music, which naturally given Starkid is both a very actorcentric group and a very musical one, need their own sections. The Stars of the Show

Starting with the man whose name is in the title whose destined to go viral , we have Paul Matthews, played by Starkid Newcomer Jon Mattenson. While a fresh face to the StarKid verse Jon to my lack of surprise was a long time stage actor before this, doing a series of one man shows including one I hope someone has video of Shark Tank: The Musical. Given he was performing in Chicago at the time it didn't take long for him to meet future fellow starkids Lauren and Jeff, with Jeff even doing the music for Jon's one man show, which i'm also adding to the "stuff I will do if you help up those backer numbers." So naturally when Starkid needed new members, he was a perfect fit.

Jon instantly feels like he belongs too: it takes a LOT to come into an experienced group and play lead on your first show, even more when your in a musical but do not get to sing until the final act. But by god Jon not only pulls it off but easily commands the entire play. And it's not that everyone else is bad. Far from it, as usual the rest of the StarKids bring it and we'll get to their performances. But as Paul, Jon utterly brings it: Paul is a layered guy being entirely boring and sedate in the office and while a tad awkward with Emma he also manages to be utterly charming, with Jon and Lauren having wonderful chemistry. You get why despite his very thin excuse for coming here and her seeing right through it she likes the guy who doesn't like musicals, and why Paul has friends and quickly becomes the group's surrogate leader: while he's an utterly normal guy, he's a likeable one, one who clearly cares for his friends.. and Ted because he kinda has to. He can be awkward but usually only when really freaked out. It's remarkable just HOW layered this character came off on second watch: first time around I liked Paul but second I fucking loved this guy.

A big part of this is background acting. While it's a common and valuable skill, especially in a comedy, Jon takes it to another level: As Jess pointed out to me every scene with him, every background movement is paul and whether hte's terrified of what's going on around him and worried for his crush's safety or DEEPLY uncomfortable because his boss is talking about jerking off, there's something to dissect and pull from. Jon is just that terrific and actor and I feel despite how talented this troupe is NO ONE else could've played paul like Jon. This is one of those performances only the actor who gave it could give.

And of course his peak is with Let It Out, where Jon effortlessly bounces between the real paul, terrified of both what he's becoming and what it's awakening, and his smiley nightmarish body invader. The effortless switching between the two in face is just mesmerising: you can't look away even if you badly want to as Paul struggles desperatley to defeat himself.. and is loosing. You have to wait the whole musical to hear Jon sing but once he does it's clear he wasn't cast as paul because he wasn't a great singer.. but because he was such a great actor.

Paul as a character is surprisingly deep: as part of the musicals meta commentary on musicals themselves Paul seems to be your typical lead stuck in a dead end situation he needs to dream his way out of. The probelm for the hive and paul himself is he really DOSEN'T know what he wants ,Paul. What he wants to actually DO with his life beyond work in an office job he dosen't seem especially happy at and maybe marry someone. IT's also realistic as Paul as most people struggle with what they really want and most who end up in an office drone job like Paul simply needed a job. And while he seems content working the job and hating musicals, as seen by the fact he still works it in every other relality after this with the only change being actually getting to connect with Emma before the apocalypse hits, one line in "Let It Out" makes it PAINFULLY clear:

"I've Never Been Happy, Wouldn't That Be Nice?

It's easy to see Paul trying to use having a steady job or finding a partner as a patch for the fact he feels deeply unhappy and alone and needs something to help him along. Yet a partner can't fix that for you ,as i've had to learn and said job isn't exactly plesant. Sometimes having depression, and in my case (and possibly pauls as there are signs), autisim, means you try to stave off the encroaching darkness with something, anything to make it better. It dosen't mean Paul CAN'T find enjoyment in his job, he met his best friend and niece there, is clearly on great terms with charlotte and Ted… well okay he has to deal with the constant smells of axe bodyspray and jizz coming from his office but 2/3 ain't bad. And he and Emma do have genuine chemistry. There's a reason their together in the next timeline and all. These aren't bad things and in fact probably hlep, but their a patch to a larger problem. It's telling a planned nightmare time story for him had him fantasies via dream machine that he was an 8 foot antrophormic squirrel living out howard the duck because the only person everyone loved without any strings attached was Peanuts the Hatchetfield Pocket Squirrel

It shows someone with depression can function but that paul probably needs counseling. It also does show his grit though: despite his depression and anxiety, he keeps going, keeps trying and despite hating the genre dosen't stop actually watching Musicals if you look closely. He knows the lyrics to "There You Are" as seen when hidgens makes everyone sing it and has seen Mamma Mia. It's something you fine folks pointed otu and Jon clearly agrees with: while he may not like musicals he dosen't stop trying. Paul is a wonderful character and I hope he gets a happy ending eventually.. or at least that if Nightmare Time ever returns he gets a happy ending for a change.

Next up is EMMMMA! Emma is played by Lauren Lopez, one of the three longtime starkids and has been in every play except one, and that one's a technicality I throw out of her flawless record as Starkid experimented with doing two smaller shows at once, and even as amazingtastic as Lauren is.. she can't clone herself. YET. While she's spent the bulk of Starkid history playing either crossdressing rolls or just plain weird ones, from best boy Draco Malfoy, to a verison of Apu from aladdin that needs to be put down due to clearly having contracted the Motiva virus, to Comissioner Gordon, she had quite the career with her roll in Starship being the only acception I can think of once the shows got started proper.

This would change after Firebringer, her first starring role in a starkid show and since sh'es played usually adult or teenage women. Why?

Maybe Nick and Matt wanted to let her stretch creatively, maybe they just got tired of that bit and wanted to let Lauren try different things. Maybe there's no real reason to it and it's just a thing that happened. I dunno. Maybe i'll be lucky enough to get to ask Lauren herself someday, i'd be honored to interview any starkid past or present.

Point is the transition didn't loosen her timing nor her talent one iota. While I can't speak on her role in firebringer as I haven't seen it yet, I can say Emma is one of her best rolls and they only reason I can't say for certain it's the best is that she somehow equaled herself with the next play and I have no idea wether Emma or Linda is better.

Emma is a complex character at first seemingly like just a jaded minimum wage worker who only seems to like exactly two people in the world: Paul because he's likely the only person she serves all day that seems to treat her like a human being, and Hidgens because he's charming, nice and probably is a fantastic guy to get high with. Like seriously, I bet Hidgens let's her test growing weed in the back of his fancy ass bunker mansion. HFPD is'nt going to come up there, their stretched as is covering Sam's midlife crisis.

She's guarded as hell but yet charming: anyone whose worked minimum wage can tell you it blows and the Langs amazingly perfectly captured what it's like to work that kind of job in your late 20's, working for those who don't respect you and those way younger than you. Throw in your depressoin, anxiety and autisim all swirling to make the frantic pace of food service near impossible and forcing me to get disablity, and it'd basically me be just without spitting in the food or slacking off.

Emma's mostly there to get them to hidgens, have wonderful chemistry with paul and make one liners, but she's still utterly endearing, with Lauren having tons of great deliveries and it being clear this situation is a LOT to pack in, that sure it's funny to watch.. but the sheer stress of it would break anyone.

And while her goal of leaving this town isn't exactly new, her REASON for it and wantin ga weed farm (since it'll be local nation wide soon as she put it and with Biden outright saying he's going after criminal charges for it recently, likely readying to do just that, she fucking called it), are heartbreaking: She was always cynical and not wanting to be caught in her older more succesful family minded sister Jane's shadow, she left… and then refused to come back. And kept doing so…. till FLASH, BANG, Jane…. was in a box and emma came back to mourn her. It sums up death painfully well: that you think you have all the time with a person in the world but sometimes.. it just… it comes up short. Thankfully of the two people i've lost neither were estranged from me but it still hurts not getting to say goodbye and it's clear emma carries a LOT of guilt and thus decided to make something of her life before it was gone.

Jane's death is also a masterful example of stealth setup. It's what i'm now calling when something is setup for later in a franchise or series, but it's not obvious at the time. It's something you likely want expanded but don't realize the creators not only plan to but always did. When watching this even KNOWING Black Friday was a coming I just didn't think that Emma's brother in law would end up not only being a main character but someone who'd help really solidify hatchetfield as a setting. Nor that he'd be played by Dumbledore but that was just pure luck. Nor that he'd end up fucking his wife's ghost possessing a car via the cupholders.

Strange times. Emma is perfectly played, being snarky and standofish as usual at times, utterly sweet with paul, and naturally terrified with any. And while Jon is clearly the background acting mvp here, Lauren deserves props for Emma's combination of horror and "what the fuck am i watching" during Workin boys"

Next up we have Ted.

Ted is played by my boy Joey Richter, another Starkid long timer and while he's missed a few more shows than his fiance, he's still one of their MVP's, starting as a headbanded Ron Weasley broing it out with harry and becoming over time a starship ranger, a kid who talks to his sentient penis, and of course his finest hour, about TWENTY diffrent rolls in the Trail To Oregon. That's not hyperbole: due to the play's stripped down cast, there were only 6 actors (The others being Lauren, Merdeith stephin whose not in this play nor a full time member of the group, though they did come back for A VHS Christmas Carol, Jeff Blim,Jamie Lynn Beatty and Corey Dorris in his best roll to date), and the other 5 were all mains with Jamie having a very small second part and Corey having a sizeable one. In contrast Joey had to play EVERY. OTHER. PART. Which included one song, independence, that was him taking on about 15 diffrent rolls, and had a rapid fire bit, and the role of main villian mcdoon, getting one of his best songs in Wagon on Fire as Result. The man is a fucking god and I hope he and Lauren are very happy together, having been together for years but only gone public with it two years ago to announce their engagment. Given the fandom had been shipping them, not their characters THEM, since AVPM the squee could be heard from the red planet mars.

So i'ts no shock Joey kills it as the office's walking erection, wearing his now trademark mustache, something he's worn in most roles since to the point many assumed he wouldn't be taking over as Peter in NPMD apparently.. forgetting you know.. shaving's a thing. Jeff Blim's shaved and that likely took 80 razors and the will of mighty thor himself to get done.

Joey just has the perfect smarmy accent for ted, one I can't place but juts fits him so well and while being the standard "survivior who no one really likes and is waiting for to die" Joey's charm and charisma make him tolerable and enjoyable. It helps he's not USELESS. While he does betray our heroes for his own selfish needs later, bastard and all, he doe smake some good if dickish points, trying to get Charlotte to see that her husband is well and truly gone (even if it's to sleep with her) and pointing out that Alice is likely already dead and saving her is a suicide mission, which it sadly was. His putting it in the most dickish way possible means it never really takes, but it's nice to show that as much of a bastard as he is, ted isn't entirley useless. His utter glee when watching Workin Boys is also one of the funniest things i've seen in a StarKid production or really in general. He's as into it as we are.

Next up is poor Charlotte, played by Jamie Lynn Beatty. Jamie has played a nice variety of rolls for the team, as shown with her rolls after this playing a basement dweller and the oliva newton john style Ghost of Christmas Past, but has a niche at times playing sad eyed woobies. Jamie's utterly expressive eyes really help. Charlotte is a throughly sad, throughly tragic character, a woman whose clearly still only with her hubsand due to a combination of badly trying to make it work when it's clear Sam, whose cheating on her with Zoey and god knows who else, has long since checked out and stays married to her because

And because she's throughly religious, being presbetarian, and thus refuses a divorce despite cheating on Sam to fill the void, said void only being filled by bastards like Ted. It's part of why I badly want a nightmare time focusing on Charlotte, as the poor woman needs a hug, not to have her zombie husband gaslight her into letting him go then make her one of them. That said the Hive charlotte is fucking awesome, and the high note Jamie hits on "Join Us and Die" is one for the ages. It was hard seeing Charlotte's pain again and knowing it does not nor it never will end well for her.

That said there is an elephant in the room with Jamie and i'm jsut going to adress it now: she's weirdly NEVER gotten a lead roll in any of the hatchefield musicals, and her only nightmare time focusing on her was as the villians. Given how the rest of the main cast of TGDWLM has all gotten an episode a piece (most within season one no less), and that even Melissa recently got one in a fundraising livestream (that I haven't seen but is apparently bonkers), it feels weird though I don't doubt that they've TRIED to do a charlotte story, even announcing one was planned for season 2. It just might not have worked out yet. Hopefully in the future we'll get to see Jamie in the front.

Next up to bat Corey Dorris, my guy. Corey isn't from the very FIRST starkid show, but he's still a UM graduate, GO BLUE!, see I told you it was automatic and showed up as early as Me and My Dick, which again I have to reassure some of you does in fact exist. Fun Fact: it was written about Joey's friendship wth Darren Criss. So yes had we gotten luckier on of Darren Criss' earliest credits would've been a walking talking penis. Your welcome for now knowing that. Point is Corey has been there a long time and the hatchetfield era has seen a thankful up in his promience, going from primarly playing side roles iwth the exception of his great run as Grandpa in trail to oregon even if he had to wake up with blood on his dick and he didn't even know where it came from, to getting either main cast rolls or outright starring turns, as seen with Nightmare Time's "Watcher World" and "Daddy". He's also the troupes longest standing black member, and this era has seen the Langs try to diversify more, with longtime Coregrapher James Tolbert getting bumped up to the cast and hiring Bryce Charles as for Nightmare Time 2, as well as adding the Bisexual Mariah Rose Faith with this musical, the gay Tolbert, and the non-binary Jae Hughes in their respective works. Not a fact I really needed to go out of my way for but I appricate even a small operation like this taking steps to actually open up.

Corey is unsuprsingly fantastic as bill, playing a hilaroiusly awkward dopey dad, but a realistic one: he's not say homer simpson…

He genuinely clearly loves Alice, tries to look out for her and is supportive of her sexuality, which I know is a low bar to clear but I do think it's nice that Alice's sexuality is just a casual thing rather than a source of drama both here and in a spirtual sequel to the duo's plotline here in Watcher World. The issue is a combination of Bill's currently unamed and unseen ex coming off like this (Gem homer)

When it comes to her budget for trying to win their daughters love, and Bill not knowing how to handle Alice clearly putting some distance between them. The fact Bill really dosen't like Alice's girlfriend Deb and thought it was REMOTELY a good idea to admit it and try to prop up Grace Chastity, another great bit of setup for later musicals, as the ideal instead. One of the few weaknesses of these two is that we don't really get to dive into who they are or why their like this or see Alice as more than just a mildly rebelious teen before she's infected. We get SOME insight with Not Your Seed but it's left deliberately ambiguous what's a lie to get bill to break and what's a painful truth. For the record I think her wanting to live with him and the why does it hurt to love you monologues have some kernel of truth, with the latter being amplified to really harm bill, while "Your right about deb she's a hardcore stoner" is a very obvious lie. IT's part of how brilliant the number and the hives tactics there are: you don't know what it's making up to feed on bill's pain and insecurity, and what's actually true feelings alice had simply amped up to do the screen. Bill gets plenty, but we only see their conflict with each other from his side.

While it is mildly weak though.. I do think it dosen't harm the show as it feels intentional: we only see bill's side.. and that makes Not Your Seed more troubling as we genuinely DIDN'T know till watcher world how the conflict actually worked and never get to thanks to Alice being taken by the hive. We don't know how much Bill blaming himself for the fight that lead to Alice not going back to clivesdale and seeing Deb instead was or if Deb really did do more drugs despite stopping Alice from getting in with the smoke club, aka Joey and Lauren miming three cigarettes at once because their the best. We don't know what's true and what's not or if they coudl've fixed things and thanks to this tragedy we never will. All we know is Bill feels guitly for letting the divorcce happen, for letting his wife take her and for failing to be the dad he wants to be, and that's all the hive needs to seal his doom. It's the point I made: bill can be a dumbass, but any parent can fuck up or simply have problems with thir kid that aren't their fault and the tragedy here is what woul dbe an easily reconcilable fight turned into the death of two people who deserved a happier ending. Thankfully the Langs clearly saw the potetial in the two and thus we get Watcher World with nightmare time. So it's hard to be mad at this for not fleshing them out when it happened later and even in context it's kind of the point.

Finally for our core characters we have Professor Hidgens. Hidgens is played by Robert Manion, aka the elephant in the room. Robert joined starkid breifly for twisted but fully joined and was embraced by the community with this show and it's easy to see why. I will have plenty of praise for his performances here and in Black Friday and Nightmare Time Season 1. It can't be avoided. But neither can the truth: Robert was suspended from the group a year ago, as he'd harassed a member of the band via text and to the langs credit once again, they took it dead seriously, not only bringing in an HR Rep to have an outside perspective and a professoinal to handle this, but suspended Robert… with only WEEKS till Nightmare Time 2, forcing Nick to play Professor Hidgens, and Peter aka Hot Chocolate Boy, while Joey took over as ethan and will be taking over as Peter for Nerdy Prudes Must die. Nick has said he will be allowed to come back both after a resonable time period and taking proper undisclosed steps and so far that period has stretched over a year and into next given the NPMD recasting. If he'll return I do not know and the most I can give RObert for his jackassery.. is that he genuinely apologized, didn't get defensive and is taking his fully deserved supsension with grace and humility instead of whining like a baby that his actions have consequences. Again VERY low bar to clear but given how most harassers and abusers seen in media refuse to admit they did anything wrong or pull a louis ck and do do that but then show up not a year later and act like they still deserve a career. I'll take that.

So very ugly actions aside.. Robert is phenomial as hidgens, giving hi ma rex harrison voice, and somehow making you feel he's an old man depsite being the youngest of the team at the time. He's hammy, hilarious and goofy, being every old man who saw this coming cliche rolled into one turtleneck and neat coat and he's already a faviorite from the start from "Nice try but i'm professor hidgens" to his attempt to get laughs at his charoltte-tan pun, to "You bet your ass we got booze'

But of course where Hidgens/Manion really shines.. is Show Stoppin Number. Good god. I'll gush about the number later but the reveal that Hidgens is actually on the hive's side, a fan of musicals and has his own terrible musical about his 6 boyfriends , Workin Boys: A New Musical that turns out is a transparent parody of a failed broadway musical with basically the same premise from a guy the langs went to school with at UM, Go Blue. Again gotta save this for the music portion as much as it hurts, but god he's brilliant in that moment. The only real flaw is that Hidge's heel turn comes out of goddamn nowhere with no foreshadowing and even then like with Bill, it's pivoted by the fact that it coming out of nowhere makes it more funny and suprising. It's no wonder the fandom took to robert.. and I sincerly hope he's GENUINE in taking the steps to atone for his actions.

Before we can get to our final two cast members, both playing multiple parts, we have to talk about our antagonist: the Hive. The Hive has no main host, thus no actor to break down, being played by EVERYONE in the company at at least one ponit. Even Lauren, who plays the only speaking character who never gets infected, still has a role in the background of la de da day as one of the infected.

The Hive is a masterful antagonist and thankfully unlike some horror villians like Micheal Meyers, finding out more about it later via Nightmare Time 2 didn't diminish it much. It works on it's own as this mysterious force that slowly but surely infects people and goes through a clear evolution in tactics and method. It's first phase of attempts don't exactly come off forceful, but still have some logic: singing as a group in La Dee Da Day is to attempt to get people to follow along, which clearly worked for a lot of people, while they manage to take all but three of CCRP's employees simply by having Davidson work on them one at a time with ONLY paul resisting. They lack finesse, as seen by the fact neither works on paul and their as subtle as Mr. Davidson's need for his wife to choke him out at night, but they clearly worked on a LOT of people.

The next step is force, but even then they don't go full on slasher YET, instead simply using cunning, poisoning a few cups of coffee, then spreading to the police. THey don't know HOW to use this autority, it's hilarious in hindsight knowing that a centuries old entity REALLY dosen't know how cops work at all, but it's clear their starting to learn. It's almost as if this is the first time Pokey has done this, or that the distance between this reality and the black and white mean that he has to relearn stuff he knows. or he's just such a self obessed diva that he forgets this kind of stuff out of habit, with his scheme in "Yellow Jacket" only being so streamlined because he had one target in mind and someone so important to hatchtefield as a whole that he CAN'T forget them no matter how self absorbed he is.

As for who Pokey is for the untiated as i've put it off long enough, Pokey IS the hive. He is Pokotho, The Singular Voice, one of the lords of the black and white, five eldrich abominations each represented by a cuddly toy and cutsey nickname, likely inspired by what seems to be their leader, Wiggly. The Lords are the cause of the weirdness in hatchefield and thus each timeline, and often the world's end, either directly via their machenations and various servants, or indirectly as it's implied there presence is why the local witchwood is so bizzare and why the various bits of messed up shit that happen in each timeline happen. They largely operate on their own and have their own goals, but can be invoked as a group as part of various bargins with some in hatchetfield.

As you can probably gather this all comes from later in the timeline: The Black and White gets introduced next play as does the first Lord we meet face to face, Wiggly, and Nightmare Time would introduce the rest, all 5 getting a cameo in the final story, and each brother getting a story to themselves with Blinky and Tinky getting introduced in season 1, Nibbly in season 2 and Pokey getting properly reintroduced and fully confirmed as the Hive in the same seasons finale.

From what I can tell Pokey isn't all that diffrent between incarnations, and uses the Meteor as a medium, having it crash here and scientest extracting the blue shit from it in "yellow jacket" leading to him getting an avatar they created there. It also offers some insight that isn't suprising as we're told by a figure I won't introduce JUST yet for those juts tuning in that "he hates every voice but his own. And you can tell: while he tries to be nice to Pokey ANYTHING but his voice , his version of a person is anthemea. It explains why he's so ungodly cruel when he really gets going, gleefully using Charlotte's dead husband and bill's dead daughter to manipulate them and instead of just jumping emma as soon as he got the chance since he clearly had a number of hosts ready, teasing her with the idea Paul's alive. To him defying his will, his voice is worse: the only happiness is in the hive, wtih him. He'll give you what you want sure.. but at the cost of who you are because to him that's all that matters. It's likely why his medium's more limited than his brothers, who seem to have an easier time reaching otu: it's likely none of them want to give him the faintest chance of enough power to take them on and given he's the only lord to have outright taken a world, their fear isn't unujustified.

It's what makes Pokey so terrifying: They seem to want what's best for humanity.. but see a complete lack of will from anything but itself as best. Nothing will stop it, there's no depths it won't sink to torture you, and you WILL be part of the hive. I've always felt the best horror villians are one with a bit of personality and Pokey hits that itch like a bullseye. He's operatic, selfish and nightmarish, being a primadonna director with the goey face of an elder god who you can't bargin with. Just give up your choice. He dosen't feel overpowered becfause while abbsurdly powerful, the horror comes from the fact that they MIGHT have been able to stop him at a few hosts.. but by the time they realize it he's won and the rest of the musical comes off as him just playing with his food. A clever unstoppable meance that chills you to the bone and is remarkably well written given half a dozen people play him, yet all play him consitent, with the same chilling instance on being the singular voice. One being, dozens of bodies, no escape.

So speaking of dozens of bodies we're on to our other ingenue, our newest addition and one who like the other remaning cast members plays a bunch of extra rolls, Mariah Rose Faith Castiles, just the first three at the time of this as she's since married. She's a wonderful, kind person and a clear talent that fit right in. She's also like Jon heavily tied to this franchise having only missed one show, Black Friday due to getting a part in Mean Girls, something that was sad but also good for her. The Pandemic meant she was avaliable for Nightmare Time and after quitting the tour due to her anxiety she's back for NPD and we're glad to have her.

Mariah plays four roles in this one: Melissa, CCRP's receptionist who has a crush on Paul and dosen't show up much, Zoey, Emma's bratty coworker whose having an affair with sam, Alice, Bill's Daughter and Greenpeace girl, a GP volunteer who paul pisses off by trying to brush off. Since 3/4 of these characters show up hived on screen she spends most of her screentime as the Hive and does a terrific job, being jolly yet clearly off in La Dee Da Day, creepily monotone in cup of poison coffee nad finally heartbreakingly nightmarish as Alice, as she uses every insecurity bill has to tear the poor guy apart. She gets a truly great scene as Hive!Zoey to oas our heroes almost escape only to reveal nope, hive's flying the plane. It's no wonder Nick wanted her to play the lead as Lex next time, and she got her chance with Nerdy Prudes Must Die as Stephanie… and as fate would have it Grace Chasity , her co-lead is played by Angela Giratina, her replacement as Lex and as has become clear via streams and the Yellow Jacket music vidoew, a now good friend in real life which I find as strange as I do sweet.

Finally for cast introductions we have Jeff Motherfucking Blim, my boy. who with this muiscla finally got to use his now iconic unshaven coked out jesus look on screen. This is how I met Jeff but he'd been around a while: When Joey coudln't do Holy Musical Batman!, Jeff stepped in as Sweet Tooth, and hammed it up so hard he earned a permeannt spot with the group, going on to play the best version of ALaddin. What would lead to his rise here though was the Trail To Oregon, an orgen trail spoff he wrote and wrote the music for. So with former music makers Talk Fine moving on to do their own stuff, Jeff was the natural choice to step in as Starkid's prime music meister, with Talk Fine head Clark Backstresser only stepping back in for a VHS chrismtas Carol. Hatchetfield feels almost as much Jeff's baby as it does Nick and Matt's, and he really gets to flex his musical muscles with this franchise getting even better with each production.

We'll talk more about his music in a moment but as an actor, Jeff is fucking hinged, having a great habbit for ham, hilarity and looking abosltuely nuts in the best way possible. Case in point while he does a good Bill Lundberg as Mr. Davidson before he gets infected, post infectoin Davidson is one of the best things i've ever seen, a perpetual creepy yet hilarious smile, an inablity to show a woman's curves without having 8 of them, and jolliy telling Paul to stay whlie he tells his wife he wants her to choke him while he jerks off. The musical plays to his strengths, with Sam being likewise unhinged if not as smily , getting to ham it up with terrible love song you tied up my heart, and while he's more calm as Col John Mcnamar of PEIP, a secret orignation against the parnormal, he's still hammy, gladly throwing jon's phone before iconicallyt elling him to wear a watch instead of just… you know.. not destroying his property and only means of calling his friends. I get something as important as time deserves it's own device but still man. He's had a hell of a day. He also does a chilling job with the very heavy "America is Great Again", proving the guy can be chilling when needed.. something we'll see all too well when we get to Nightmare Time.

So with that we're down to the various other roles played by the rest of the cast. Manion's other major roll is Hot Chcolate Boy, aka Peter. He's a delight, Emma's Boss, she's really fogerattble other than, since the Langs likely realized "Shit charlotte is dead", the "All your best friends are here" gag in the starlight showdown, A Homeless man who will be vastly important, utterly steals la de da day, and freaks paul out expertly and of course future star of Hatchetfield Man in a Hurry. He was written to just say "i'm in a hurry" in the script but Jeff eventually just kept brushing past so much that he was brought back for black friday and flanderized from just some uncaring jackass with a scarf and a trench coat who keeps showing up places you REALLY shoudln't go to when your in a hurry. We are truly blessed for that. So that leads us to one of the most important and vital parts of Starkid and this show, the Music. Show Stoppin Numbers

The soundtrack for TGWDLM is postively packed. As i've made clear there's only one song I really DON'T like on the whole soundtrack and we'll get to it. The gimmick of it all being the hive gives things a unique vibe with the music not being our heroes inner yearnings but a sign shits about to get bad. While this isn't Jeff's first kickass starkid score it's the one that really showed what he can do, trapsing all around genres and theater standard types of songs to make this catchy earwormy soundtrack.

The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals is our title track and gets us going out of the gate. It's omnious as it goes on much like the musical, with the Hive going from talking up how great musicals are and how great.. to asking "should we kill him? Should we kill him?" for paul not wanting to sing and dance with them all, and calling him a bitch, an ass and a cuck (not a cock like I thoguht for some time), for not joining in their singing season. The part where paul dosen't show up on queue is also fucking gold. Music wise it's lively a true all timer of an opening number Faviorite Part: Joey's "But tonight we're gonna chroncile a story so astronomical!" just the way he says it is so perfectly hammy.

La Dee Da Day is a great parody of those big showy crowd numbers musicals have, being a great one in it's own right…j while parodying the usual cheerfulness of that sort of thing with how unnerving it comes off for poor paul and of course the homeless man… who "used to want to kill them all while high on bathsalt zombie drugs snacking on a dead mans face", with small horrible implicatoins hidden from the GPG throwing "my old skin away" to how "a song takes all the pain away" for the old homeless man meaning evne if the hive puppets can FEEL the pain it uses them anyway. ti's nicely done Best Part: Gave a clue but as you can probably guess the Homeless Man's horrifying yet hilarous rant. The only downgrade for the soundtrack version is Paul's confused "What" is missing, which I fell really completes the joke. as does Joey getting entirely up in his face as he gets more intense.

THen of course we get one of my faviorite numbers and performances: What Do You Want Paul? This is where I fell in love with Jeff Blim folks, as his giant horrifying smile during the whole thing is one of the funniest goddamn things mankind has ever created. Making an I want song into a song about how someone wants the main protagnist to want like an I want song is fucking brilliant and is every bit as hilaroius as it sounds. Pauls utter confusion and horror the whole time, especially once we get to "I want you to choke me out at night" is hilarious. Speaking of which that is one of the funniest things Team StarKid has EVER done. I mean it. The sudden pivot to that, Jon's perfectly timed discomfort and just how beautifully and straightlaced Jeff holds it, as well as his offhand "if you leave your fired" to paul… i'm tearing up laughing NOW just thinking about it. It's one of only two songs that I went back to. Best Part: "I want you to choke me while I jerk off", both for Paul's reaction of who is this for and just for being one of the most excellent comedic swerves starkid has ever done.

Cup of Roasted/Poison Coffee is fine. It's mildly annoying but it feels like the point, that it's SUPPOSED to be the annoying half assed kind of jingle Beanies would have.. and makes it that much more horrifying when we get the Poisoned version, and the hey mr buisness how do you do as the newley hived corpses join in. Chilling. Best Part: Again the hey mr buisness part after all those people what get murdered.

Show Me Your Hands is another comedic goldmine. It not only feels like subtle commentary on the police ("WE make sense") but is packed with great ham from jeff, great deadpan from mariah and robert frigging breakdancing. It comes off like a bunch of 12 year olds playing cops in the bodies of actual cops.. which might be a good nightmare time story down the line Langs. You can have it for free. Best Part: "Your cat is dead". Just the delivery alone is enough. Thank you so much Mariah.

You Tied Up My heart

Yeah as i've made no secret of I hate this fucking thing. In concept it's not bad, a cheesy love ballad that's the hive tricking charlotte and look, Jeff's music and vocals are fine. But with the both obvious solution, the seriousness of what he's doing, and just the sheer length this thing wears on you. What should be horrifying, the hive gaslighting charlotte becomes an endurance test. It's also baffling as Jeff did an absolute banger of a ballad "When the World's At Stake" for Trail to Oregon so I don't know what happened here. I'm more baffled because he can do better. It's not even god awful, it's just.. not good. Best Part: That shriek of "Charlotte!". It's the one thing about the song I can compliment

Join Us and Die is thankfully 800 times better, giving Jamie a chance to fucking belt it and being an acting ending powerhouse. Like the songs before that thing that happened, ti's comedy packed, the last bit about beating up Ted styled like "Bop It" is fucking magical. A truly electric villian song Best Part: "it is time to dieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" I love that woman, how she did that I don't know but holy shit.

Not Your Seed is fucking incredible. While Mariah got to sing before and got a bit of a showcase with La De Da Day, here she REALLY gets to show how impressive her voice and acting are. Not Your Seed is just 2 and a half brilliant minutes of Mariah absolutely killing it on the stage, and utterly shredding poor bill to pieces. The slow pacing only drags out the pain for bill and feels delebrate, like Pokey WANTED this to fucking hurt him for as long as possible for surviving this long, to make Paul WATCH for his defiance as Pokey broke his best friend. Especially "you let me out of your sight for one second" just the rapid delivery of that and "didn't you know I wanted to live with you" hit like a fucking truck. She's the top. Look What Happens Nightmare Time would also give us the series definitive cords and the title for it's anthology show. Nicely done Best Part: Very fucking hard. Mariah does not make this easy. But Why Does It Hurt To Love you gets me as it's this sudden, painful, and probably HONEST, taking Alice's real emotions break that REALLY guts you and sadly poor bill. Thankfully not literally. As tragic as that headshot was at least it was quick.

Show Stopping Number has the thankfless task of following up one of the shows best numbers.. so naturally it's also one of the shows best and what's become it's signature piece. Robert fucking owns the stage as hidgens, first with the slower tunes leading in..a nd then with the falsetto switch when he decides to intro Workin Boys. Just the shift from the old man voice which is still BEAUTIFULLY sung in a crooner bing crosbyish style to Robert's more natural register… how are this man's lungs human? I shoudlnt' have to tell you returning starkids that Workin Boys is one of the best jokes ever crafted, from being a clear pisstake on Glory Days (something I didn't know but somehow makes it funnier once you do, as Glory Days is every bit as prentious, stupid and nostalgia baity as WOrkin Boys from the looks of it), to Roberts great dance moves (coregraphed by lauren) to the great hook of "five o clock can't come soon enough". IT's fucking magic. i may have.. complicated feeligns about robert I already talked about at lenght, btu I can't deny workin boys is great nor that i'm excited for the short film, which I hope gets released publicly in some form. The first song already has me hyped. And yes there's a short film: MANY people wanted Workin Boys to be a full musical which while understandable wasn't something that would really work given it was deisgnd to be a parody, hence instead compromising with a short ABOUT Hidgens actually getting to make it as part of Black Friday's backer goals. Best Part: BUISNESS CALLS I'M UP TO MY ASS IN SHIT, WHAT IS THIS BUISNESS. I mean that entire part, including the phone call desreves it but i'm calling out the sudden shift and hte hilaroity of that first line itself. I'm not entirley convinced that this was salvaged from them TRYING to make a full on parody of glory days at some point.

America is Great Again gets a bad wrap as i've seen it shockingly low on several hatchetfield ranking lists on youtube and along with John's other song, which we'll get to I feel is underrated. It's a chilling song and while it's politics are welded to it's sleeves, given the Langs had a friend outright quit to become a lawyer over the election , it's clear it REALLY hit them hard. And frankly as MANY bros tend to forget, Poltics and political satire are baked into horror. So while it's in your face about it's critques of trumpisim (The loud has become the strong).. it's not exactly wrong. The you can't run and easily disposed parts espcially given the kind of legslation put on women's bodies and LBGTQ+ peoples lately and general hostility to anyone diffrent period. The fact this hasn't gone away with the election really just makes this song hold up that much more. Best Part: The Final Solution onward. Just how horrifying it is mixed with Jeff's ham.. perfect.

So we've come to my faviorite song, Let It Out. This song is pure brilliance as is the staging, with the hive all on the fringes urging paul to let it out because they know their victory isn't not a matter of how but a matter of when. Of course the man treat and the thing tha tbrings this is Jon Mattensons' performance, effortlessly switching between paul and the hive, going from pained horror to having a smile painted on his soul like it was nothing. It shows in the voice, with paul's panicked speech constrated with the hvie's plastic singing and when Paul does sing he's barely there. it's one of the best horror freakouts i've ever seen, and trust me that threeshold is vast and expansive. The ending shout of "I don't like musicals' is badass.. and sadly futile as his fate

Is "Ineveitble", our final soong and a nice cruel twist on big splashy finales. Most musical finales , those that end happy anyway are about lifting you up, really reving you up as you get out of the theater and giving you hope for tommorow. Even pretty grim works like "Spring Awakening" can end on a nope of hope. This one? Nah. This one takes your heart and smashes to bit, forcing you, much like emma to watch as a puppeteered paul sings several even more warped version osf the score at her while trying to convince her that the horrible monster she's been fighting is a good thing and that the world became "peaceful and just". It's truly haunting and sadly catchy as hell so we're pretty much fucked i'd say. Watching emma run around desperate to escape as it's clear ther eisn't, i'ts at ruly chilling way to end a truly excellent musical.

So thus we close a curtain on one Hatchetfield. If all goes well I'll be covering Black Friday next month , then possibly taking a break for december before getting into nightmare time next year. This could change as when push comes to shove to feed the hive that is my bank account I HAVE to proritze the reviews I do on comission, but i intend to try my damdenst to get the review out around the actual black friday. I hope you all enjoyed this as it was a LOT to get done, but it was a true labor of love. This is one of my faviorite musicals and I was glad to dig through it with a fine toothed comb and I can only hope a few years after it's release my analysis isn't too played out. Stick around if you enjoyed this for more reviews, don't be afraid to reblog it or join my patreon to help keep this blog going, and thank you once again so much for reading. I'll see you in line for a Tickle Me Wiggly.

#team starkid #hatchetfield #tgwdlm #paul matthews #emma perkins #henry hidgens #ted spankoffski #bill woodward #alice woodward #charlotte sweetly #sam sweetly #zoe chambers #man in a hurry #peter spankoffski #joey richter #lauren lopez #jon matteson #corey dorris

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pastanest · 1 year

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A/N: if you’re wondering why I’m having to repost this, or why you were perhaps previously following me but no longer are, please refer to this post. I was able to retrieve this thanks to @bakedcrispss - thanks so much!! ♡

Daryl Dixon x she/her!reader

spoilers: set in season 2

WARNING: references to self-inflicted wounds + gore

Angel

As soon as Shane arrived back at the farm, Daryl ran up to the truck, and when he saw that he was alone, he immediately aimed his crossbow at Shane’s buzzcut.

“Woah man, cool it!” Shane called, raising his hands above his head, feigning innocence as the rest of the group approached.

Rick had his hand over his gun in his pocket as he sprinted over, but Daryl was not going to back down.

“Where is she!?!” He snarled.

Daryl had been your best friend since the beginning; he tried to warn you, he told you that Shane would try something. You and Shane had never gotten along, you had hated him from the moment he joined the group. When he started doing shit that was beyond stupid on the farm, you were the only one completely on Dale’s side. After Dale’s tragic death, Shane somehow talked Rick into letting you go on a run with him; he told Rick he wanted to ‘clear the air with you’, and although you didnt believe that for a second, you agreed to go. You thought that if he tried something, you’d get through it and live to tell the tale, you’d finally expose him for the monster he was.

Shane tried to put on the same act he did when he came back without Otis. “She didnt make it, she’s dead, man.”

Daryl’s crossbow jolted in his shaking hands, his grip turning his knuckles white. “Like HELL she is! What’d you do with ‘er!?!”

Shane shook his head. “I tried to get her man, we were overrun! The walkers, they got her. Im real sorry.”

Rick reached the battlefield and stood between the two men, looking between Daryl and his best friend, whose behaviour recently had been less than trustworthy.

“Daryl, we’ll get to the bottom of this.” Rick said, holding his hand out to the one man who truly didnt feel like he blonged in the group.

“Naw, everyone’s gon’ trust this asshole like they did before! Im goin’ out to look for ‘er myself.” Daryl lowered his crossbow, sending a final venomous scowl at Shane before he swung his crossbow over his shoulder and walked away. As much as he wanted to beat Shane to the ground, he would need just cause for the rest of the group to believe him, so he had to get to the bottom of it himself.

Daryl returned to his own camp on the farm, the distance between him and the others far more than physical. He packed a bag with everything he had, food and bandages, water, a spare knife, whatever you might need. Some part of him knew you had to still be alive. He would spend the rest of his life searching for you to prove it to himself if he had to.

“DARYL!” A voice shouted from the distance, and when Daryl turned to face it, he saw Carol sprinting towards him with everything she had.

“She’s back!” Carol yelled, and that was all Daryl needed to hear. He dropped everything and bolted for Hershel’s house.

The sight that greeted him was as much of a relief as it was a cause for panic, you were screaming and fighting against Rick and Glenn, they were holding you back from Shane, who was trying his best not to look terrified. Daryl stood in front of you, blocking your view of Shane, and holding your face so that you looked at him.

“Hey, angel, you good?” He asked you. Obviously, Daryl could tell you were far from good, but he used the nickname he gave you as a distraction. You once joked that rather than being two peas in a pod, you were the angel wings to his jacket, and ever since, he’s quietly referred to you as his angel. Never in front of the others, until just then.

Your eyes locked onto Daryl’s and instantly filled with tears. Your blood spattered face crumbled, and Daryl watched the main source of his strength fracture before his eyes.

“Get ‘er inside.” He told Rick and Glenn, who nodded and practically carried you into the farmhouse.

Daryl planned to follow you right away, but he had something to do first. He couldnt risk looking directly at Shane without potentially launching into a rage, he needed to be with you first, so he restrained himself and averted his gaze. Glancing over his shoulder, forcing his eyes to the ground, Daryl growled.

“When I find out what’chu did, yer dead where ya stand.”

With that, he went in the house after you, following the sounds of your cries to one of the guest bedrooms. Hershel was looking over you, Glenn and Rick standing at the doorway watching you with worried eyes. Daryl walked past them, unable to spare them so much as a glance when you were right in front of him. He sat down on the opposite side of the bed, giving Hershel the space to check you over for injuries. As soon as you registered Daryl’s presence, you grabbed his hands, your eyes closing in a pained blink.

“You’re alright, (Y/N), no serious injuries and no scratches or bites. I’ve dressed the cuts on your abdomen, but they dont require stitches. It’s more shock than anything else.” Hershel concluded, and Daryl nodded, paying far more attention to Hershel’s words than you were able to.

Hershel rose to his feet and left the room, Glenn following after him. Rick lingered for a moment, waiting for Daryl to say something.

“Make sure he dont go nowhere.” Was all Daryl told him, and Rick only nodded in reply as he walked away, leaving you and Daryl to talk.

“Hey, angel-“ Daryl began, his voice so much softer than it had just been, because he was talking to you. “-can you tell me what happened?”

You visibly shuddered in response, and Daryl squeezed your hands to comfort you. Your eyes were still closed, but your lips parted, and your hoarse voice told him everything.

“So, what’s the real reason you’re bringing me out here?” You asked Shane as you sat in the passenger seat, your eyes facing forward but your peripheral vision locked onto him, so that you appeared completely unbothered, but the entire time you kept an eye on him.

“Tryin’ to clear the air, like I said. I dont want this animosity between us anymore.” Shane answered, lying through his teeth.

You scoffed into a laugh, but didnt say anything else. It was obvious that he wasnt going to be honest about his intentions, but you had to be ready for anything.

It took roughly half an hour to reach the destination Shane had chosen, a warehouse of some kind.

“What’re we doing here?” You questioned, wondering what excuse Shane was going to conjure up, but he didnt even bother.

“Just follow me.” He uttered as he jumped out of the truck, slamming the door behind him.

You could’ve just got in the drivers seat and driven home right then, but you had to prove to everyone that Shane was a threat to the group, you had to have undeniable evidence. So, you followed him.

The warehouse sounded empty, you couldnt hear any groans or the shuffling of walkers, but you couldnt fathom what Shane had brought you here for. Was he planning to just execute you and drive off? He led you to a store room of some kind, it was pitch black inside, but you could hear the groans from beyond the door.

“There’s some medical supplies in there. Go in and get ‘em, I’ll cover you.” Shane told you, but he wasnt even trying to sound innocent anymore.

“You really think Im going to-“

But Shane didnt even let you argue with him, he grabbed your arm with one hand, opened the store room door with the other, and shoved you inside. He held the door shut with his own body weight so that you couldnt escape. You yelled at him, banged against the door with your fists, and the sound drew the walkers to you. There was no way Shane was going to let you out, so you had to form a plan. Quickly. The walkers couldnt see you, only hear you, and Shane couldnt see you without coming in. So, you made a scene. Feeling around for something sharp on the shelves, you found a tool of some kind and cut into your stomach, enough to make you bleed but not deep enough to cause serious damage. You tried to aim your blood puddles in a particular spot, all the while dodging the walkers that were aimlessly reaching for you and ignoring whatever abuse Shane was shouting at you from the other side of the door. Once you created what you thought was a believably bloody scene, you tore some of your hair out and threw it on the floor. It wasnt much, but it was the best you could do. Shane was no genius, you hoped it wouldnt take much to fool him. With the scene set, you searched around in the dark for anything that you could hide behind. With a hiding spot found, you returned to the door and banged against it again, leaving scraped, bloody handprints on it as you screamed and cried theatrically. The walkers shuffled over, and smelling the blood on the floor, started lapping at it like dogs. You ran to your hiding spot, and waited. Shane waited, too. You counted another five minutes before he took your silence as a sign, and he opened the door to investigate. He saw the walkers still licking the blood stained floor, your hair stuck to their rotting faces as they looked up at what they thought was their next meal. Shane shot each one of them in the head while laughing, and he was still laughing when he walked out of the warehouse. You waited until you heard the truck speed off before you left the warehouse, and then you walked all the way back to the farm. A couple of times, Shane drove back up the road out of paranoia, just to check you definitely werent following him somehow, and each time you had to duck into the forest for cover.

Daryl struggled listening to what Shane had put you through, he couldnt believe what he was hearing. “How’d ya think to do all that in the warehouse? Werent’cha scared?”

You nodded, laughing grimly. “Terrified, but I couldnt stop thinking of how upset you’d be without me, I had to make it back, so I did whatever I had to do.” Your eyes finally opened, meeting Daryl’s teary ones.

“You’re really livin’ up to yer angel name, y’know that?” Daryl told you, sniffling and blinking back tears, laughing slightly at himself. He squeezed your hands again. “You should get some rest, been a rough day.”

You smiled weakly at him as you laid back on the bed. “You’re not wrong there! Promise you’ll be here when I wake up?”

Daryl smiled back at you. “Wouldnt wanna be anywhere else.” He rose to his feet. “I’ll be right back, just gotta handle somethin’.”

You let go of his hand and smiled after him as he headed for the door. You blew Daryl a kiss, and he caught it, stopping in the doorway to do so, but then he decided to stay a moment.

“When you were stuck in there, you said he was shoutin’ at ya...what was he sayin’? If you don’ mind me askin’.” He asked, knowing that whatever Shane had said to you was going to rile him up that little bit more.

You frowned and stared off at the wall as you thought back. “Uhh, I wasnt really focussing on it, but a couple of times he said your name and I couldnt ignore it. He was saying stuff like I’d end up just like Sophia, and you wouldnt be able to save me just like you couldnt save her.”

Daryl managed to control his expression as he nodded rigidly. “I’ll be back soon, you go ‘head and start sleepin’.”

You smiled at him, giving him a small salute. “Yes sir!” Your gesture made him smile despite what you’d just told him, but the smile disappeared as soon as he headed for the stairs.

A storm thudded down the stairs of Hershel’s family home that day, it burst through the front door, slamming the wood against the wall with the force of it, and it locked onto its target.

Rick had made sure he didnt go anywhere, which made this a whole lot easier. All Daryl could see was red, and he was determined to bring that view to everyone else as he speed walked over to Shane and greeted him with a vicious right hook, blood sputtering from his mouth as he fell to the floor with the impact. Rick tried to jump between the two again, but Glenn held him back, knowing that Daryl knew far more about this situation than anyone else, and for now it was up to him to deliver justice. Daryl had so much to say to the scum on the ground, but he was never very good with words, so he settled for a hard kick to Shane’s gut, causing him to curl into himself and yell out. Crouching down, Daryl forced Shane onto his back, and then delivered several more heavy punches to his face. Red. Everyone could see it now. The grass was stained with it, Daryl’s clothes, Shane’s clothes, Shane’s face. It was all the same to Daryl. Once he thought he’d beaten enough of the life out of Shane to leave him guaranteed permanent damage, Daryl stood up. He started walking back to the house, but Shane coughed out one final dig.

“You still didnt save her.”

Daryl stopped dead in his tracks, taking a whole second to process that, before the storm was over Shane once more, and a final punch cracked through his nose.

“She don’ need me t’ save her, she saved her damn self! You underestimated ‘er. I wont be leavin’ her side til she’s alright again, and when she is - and she will be - if I see yer face again, it’ll be your spine I break next. Clear?” Daryl slowly stood back up, looming over Shane. He spat on him to emphasise how inferior the man beneath him was, and then he was gone like the wind.

The mixture of his and Shane’s blood dripped from Daryl’s knuckles as he returned to Hershel’s home, creating a small trail behind him. He approached the guest room quietly, almost tiptoeing, greatly contrasting the thudding steps he’d had before. When he reached the doorway, he saw that you were sound asleep, a smile still on your face. Daryl’s heart melted at the sight of you, and he slumped down in the chair at your bedside. He went to take ahold of your hand, but noticing how bloody his were, he quickly wiped them on his shirt so that you didnt freak out when you woke up. He knew once he held your hand, he wouldnt let go, and if you woke up holding his hand when it was so bloody, you’d lose your mind worrying about him. The bruises and splits in his knuckles were still going to get a disapproving frown from you, but he couldnt exactly prevent that now.

All Daryl could do was sit, and finally relax with the knowledge that you were safe, because he would sooner die than let you shed a single tear if he could help it. You had saved yourself, and in turn, saved Daryl, because for the brief moment that he wondered if you really were gone, he realised the end of the world was no longer worth seeing. And in that moment, sitting at your side, holding your hand as you slept, Daryl realised something else. Angel just might be an understatement.

#daryl dixon #daryl dixon x reader #daryl dixon imagine #imagine #imagines #x reader #fanfic #fanfiction #headcannon #headcannons

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raving-raven-writing · 1 month

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I Met A Girl--Movie Review (Spoiler Free)

I recently watched the movie "I Met a Girl" '(2020) and I really enjoyed it. I thought they did a good job on how mental illness (in this case, schizophrenia) is portrayed. The storyline is good, as is the acting, and I liked that it had a happy ending, since they could have chosen to end it on a sad note. The main actor, Brenton Thwaites, who plays Devon, was also in the movie Occulus (which is one of my favorite horror movies, idk why) and also in Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (I can't remember if this is the fourth or the fifth one, but I remember his character) did a really good job on playing an individual with schizophrenia. The character of Devon itself is good was so colorful and fun to watch. This movie has a lot of what I like to watch on screen, that being anything psychological/in relation to psychology or mental illness, good brother relations (protective big brother, I love so much), and men being vulnerable and open. Definitely would recommend you watch, I honestly think it is underrated as I haven't heard of the film up until a couple days ago. 9/10. I am probably going to buy this on DVD, just to have in my physical collection since it might not be on Amazon Prime forever.

#movie review #spoiler free #film review #movie recommendation #underrated #mental illness in movies #mental illness #brotherly love #schizophrenia #actors #happy endings #amazon prime #amazon prime show

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reservoirreputation · 7 months

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Birds in the Spider's Nest- Extras #1

Spoilers for my ResDogs fic of the same name down below

[ ] = current author's note

[the original placeholder title of this fic was Monsters of Old, which I was never happy with. Below are a bunch of other potential titles. Asterisks indicate how much I liked the title]

Other titles (because this one’s generic as hell:

Living Martyrs ** (For the chapter where both Vic’s screwup and Freddy’s accident are revealed)

It’s Always the Helpful People -

Seven Crooks Walk Into an ‘Abandoned’ Cabin

The Things We Get For Being Nice *

Dead Men Do Tell Tales

Won’t You Help Me? * Please Help Me, Don’t You Love Me?

Poster Boy **

A Teachable Moment

At Last, Under Stars** (Very sentimental) (Chapter title towards the end?)

No Face, No Problems

Breaking My Back (Just To Know Your Name)

Paralyzer

Black Sheep* Counting Black Sheep, Where is Your Face, Mr. Black Sheep?

Birds in the Spider’s Nest

[last entry has no asterisk because when I wrote it down, it was just an instant 'Yes'. This title didn't come about until I was writing Matty's POV, and it just came to me. Writing's funny like that]

Summary: Cabin in the Woods-style tale, likely not supernatural. Up in Northern California, where Freddy visits in the summer an old Newandyke cabin. It belonged to his parents, who vacationed here with their son throughout his childhood, spending whole summers here. Then, early in high school, there was a falling out with his uncle, and the place was abandoned, but not sold. Vague memories of times gone by litter his mind, and Freddy, forced into early retirement,, goes back to this cabin, to sell it, restore, whatever, maybe even find answers.

Note: Organized crime tries to keep from killing the following: civilians and cops. Anyone not part of their way of life, essentially. After a job, though? On the run, trying to lay low? When shit’s starting to go sideways, and you want someone, anyone, to blame?

Joe Cabot has plans in San Francisco, and wants a hideout for after the job. He recalls a cabin one of his old employees used, and decides to head there, knowing for the most part that it’s abandoned. He even sends a couple of people out beforehand to check, which of course proves him right. They set the meetup and get the job done.

Larry pays for the gas inside the station, and is struck by how damn cute one of the patrons is. Light flirting ensues, with the stranger happily returning it. There’s something oddly familiar about him, though, that Larry can’t quite put his finger on. The stranger, Freddy’s the name, mentions heading to his cabin for the weekend, and Larry says ‘same’. ‘Where to?’ ‘Oh, such-and-such’ Freddy freezes, saying, ‘you sure about that? that’s my cabin’ ‘I misspoke’ ‘I don’t think you did’ ‘You knew (uncle’s name)?’ ‘Yeah, he was my uncle’ ‘he told us we could use it’ ‘he’s dead’ ‘years ago’ ‘sure’ Freddy sighs. ‘I’ve got the keys. Which one’s your car?’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because I’d rather let you in and supervise y’all getting blasted than have a busted lock and god knows what else to replace’

Caught in more ways than one, Larry agrees, and practically sprints ahead of Freddy to get to his car first, and let them know of the latest developments. He’s riding with Joe, who makes the call: bring the guy along. No one say nothing, and let the bastard play host. He’s probably on the level, anyhow. Can’t change the hideout now, and play along. If he gets to be trouble, kill him. “But it was so-and-so’s nephew!” Kill him quickly, then.

They get to the cabin, Larry with Freddy as the latter goes to unlock the door, while Joe gets word to the other car about what’s happening. Jokes about Larry not being able to keep it in his pants ensue, with Pink of course being a nervous wreck. Joe mentions to Blue this early on that Larry may not have it in him to do the deed, should it need doing, and Blue agrees to pick up the slack.

A few more code names are made up on the spot, to protect Eddie and Joe just a little: Eddie is Red, for obvious reasons, and Joe is Black. Pink and Brown grumble and huff at this, but Joe tells them to can it; he’s in charge, he can give himself whatever name he pleases. Freddy’s only weirded out a little by it, then figures he wouldn’t want to share his legal name either with someone whose house you were just about to break into and squat in. Joe says they’ve used this for a while now, years even. That When his uncle would hang out with them, he’d go by Orange, and you can use that around us if you want. A test, to see how in the know he is, how comfortable Freddy can be with them. He agrees, because he’s bored out of his mind, and more than a little curious. He might also just be thinking with his dick, who could blame him?

As much as Freddy hate having to retire, it was apparently easier than he expected to leave his policing ways behind.

How did Freddy get hurt? Maybe he took a metaphorical bullet for his newbie partner, Marvin Nash. Recycle a plot-point from Orphan, where Freddy’s now in Steve’s position, Marvin in Larry’s. Only difference is that where Larry left the Marines after a year, Marvin stuck with the LAPD. How we might even get another appearance from Marvin, or maybe not. Not his district, after all. ALTERNATIVE: he was never injured, but a mental health issue/disease came up, something completely out of his control.

How long has it been since Freddy’s forced retirement? Maybe recently, explaining the boredom/cabin fever. Six months?

Freddy’s injury? Concussion? Damage to his eyes? Completely physically healed, but has PTSD? Full on limb prosthesis? Spinal injury? OR: Freddy’s disease/MHI?

Freddy starts asking around what the crew knew of his uncle, what he did for a living, for fun, so on. How he doesn’t remember much of him, but gets this sense of panic when he thinks too long about his uncle.

NEW DRAFT FOR FIC: First idea was for it to be about Demons or Vampires, with Freddy being the supernatural entity. Then to have it based completely in reality. The problem with option two is that the fic veers too closely to ‘Orphan’s premise. So, idea three: the cabin is haunted by the ghost of Freddy’s uncle, who’s trying to warn him about the danger he’s in, specifically with the people in Joe’s crew that helped kill him.

How at first clear signs of a haunting begin after Joe’s guys initially stake out the place, and rumors start circulating in the time between then and Freddy’s trip up there. How people start talking about it and then clam up when Freddy’s around, because while they get a kick out of speculating about his dead uncle, they actually liked Freddy’s parents, and, in turn, him. When Freddy and the crew stay up there, odd sounds and movement are chocked up to the amount of people crashing at a place meant for half their number. It takes a lot for it to get spooky, maybe in the form of one of them hearing the uncle’s voice, but not someone who met him in life, like Pink or Brown.

Visual hallucinations; when the uncle appears, he looks so much like Freddy, at least in body type/height, hair all in his face, that the group mistakes the sightings as Freddy. Only the likes of Joe or Vic know better, because they actually saw the clothes the uncle died in.

1974: Freddy would be 13, middle school age. Blonde would be 17, high school drop-out? Maybe fudged his age to get in the group sooner?

The uncle’s death: Drug overdose, Joe with protege Vic let him die? Maybe Larry’s there, with Vic under his wing. They try saving the uncle, but all seems lost. Larry goes out to the car for something, doesn’t see when the uncle wakes up. See, either roll with the accident, or that Joe wanted him dead, but knew that Larry would fight him on it. Joe finishes the job with Vic’s help. They get a head start on concealing the guy’s body before Larry can get back down there. As far as Larry’ knows, the uncle OD’d.

Why kill the uncle? What if he took the blame for something Vic did? Tried to give the kid some slack, and got heat from Joe for it? Like, “I’m already a screw up, won’t do me much harm. You being so new, best you kept your nose clean.” Except that Joe was already at his wit’s end with the uncle, and was waiting for the last straw. The tragedy is that the uncle didn’t do the thing, and was actually being selfless. ‘You were a liability, I couldn’t have you around’ ‘I was covering for the kid!’ ‘Well, it would’ve been something, eventually’ ‘Really? I’d inevitably be a screw-up? That’s why you killed me?!’

Scene image: Freddy’s been locked down in the basement, as his uncle’s ghost starts to take over. Grabs a sledgehammer from the corner of the room, and begins to smash up the floor of concrete. The feeling of rage becomes more intense, reaching a feverish pitch. The first bit of clothing is spotted, and the tool is thrown aside. Freddy uses his hands to clear away rubble, tearing skin, breaking fingernails. When bone is spotted, Freddy slowly looks up the staircase, if looks can kill. He lets out an unearthly scream.

There’s banging on the door to the basement. The crew stares in horror at the sounds that come from the other side. The wood rattles on its hinges. white fights to get to the door, being held back by some of the others. Finally, though, he breaks free, and tries for the door. It’s locked, he doesn’t have the key. Suddenly, and without warning (LOL) a hand bursts through the door. Bloodied fingers reach for anything and everything. One of the other guys, maybe Brown, comes rushing forward with a knife. four of Freddy’s fingers go flying, and he screams. It’s just Freddy again, and Larry wants desperately to get to him. “Please, help me.” Freddy whispers, “Don’t you want to help me?” and oh Larry does, he can taste the desperation on his tongue. “Don’t you love me?” Something about it doesn’t sit right with him, and Larry asks, “Who are you talking to?” “My darling nephew, of course.” and the fingers lift off of the ground into Freddy’s awaiting hand, sealing back into place with bloody seams for sutures.

STORY STRUCTURE: Main chapter is in the present (1992) and the ends of chapters are in the past, maybe a mix of the uncle and Vic’s POV’s.

ENDS OF CHAPTERS: One: Vic meeting the likes of Larry and the uncle for the first time, lying about his age. Larry’s meant to take Vic under his wing, and the uncle’s deemed to bad of an influence.

Two: Vic is on his own, and has made a big mistake. He feels too much shame to call Larry, so he gets ahold of the uncle. The latter tells the former not to worry about it, he’ll take the heat. He’s the company screwup, he can take another hit.

Three: Joe, Larry, Vic and the uncle are on a trip up to the uncle’s cabin. Larry and Vic are last-minute additions, and Joe’s low-key pissed about it. When they arrive at the cabin, the uncle starts reacting badly to one of the drugs he took. They rush him inside, Larry taking charge in trying to save him. Joe keeps insisting that Larry leave for help, for a guy Joe knows, all to send him on a wild goose chase. When Larry’s gone, Vic is ordered to help Joe dispose of the uncle’s body. ‘But Larry’s getting help’ ‘The bastard’s dead. Nothing more to do for him’ Cut to the uncle waking up.

Four: The uncle wakes up, from his POV, and recognizes what’s being done, that Joe’s getting ready to make him disappear. He starts to freak out, to which Joe hits him, again and again, finishing what he’d started. Vic asks why, and Joe explains that the last straw was the uncle’s most recent screw-up, AKA Vic’s screw-up. They get the uncle in concrete before Larry gets back.

Freddy and Uncle bonding moments: Freddy may not have had a rebellious phase, but he did have an uncle that satisfied his curiosity. First drink, first smoke. Each time Freddy’s caught, uncle would just say “I won’t tell if you won’t tell.” Sneaking some vodka from his uncle’s stash, making a face and an exaggerated gagging sound, he’s interrupted by Uncle turning on the light, and Freddy has to just barely stop himself from spilling the plastic bottle. Uncle says, “Thanks for the save. I’d be more pissed if you wasted any.” Isn’t mean at all, trying to be sarcastic more than anything else. First smoke, and Freddy panics, remembering their first talk about not liking any wastage, just holding the smoldering smoke a few inches away from his face, terrified. Uncle just sits right there beside him, gets out his own cig, does a few puffs, asks if the kid wants to see a trick. Freddy, not sure if it’s a trap, slowly nods. Uncle then proceeds to show Freddy how to blow smoke rings. Maybe cut to the present and have Freddy doing this same action, White getting a kick out of it.

[I did make an attempt at including Vic/Freddy in this fic, but it didn't pan out/was too weird considering how long Vic and Larry have known each other. What's really funny is that, despite removing the few references to it from the story, at least one person was able to pick up on it XD Essentially Vic/Freddy is a very tiny Draft #3]

Parallel between Freddy and VIc: Sense of survivor’s guilt. Freddy had been in an accident where a driver had a stroke/heart attack and hit Freddy’s parked car. Freddy was really hurt, had to retire from the PD, and the other guy died. On top of all this, his former coworkers are paranoid and convinced that the dead driver did this on purpose, as Freddy was on-duty and in his squad car. They harass the surviving family members, and Freddy’s pissed when he finds out. They’ve just taken up this cause in his name and are making people suffer with it, and don’t give a fuck about what Freddy wants/would do. On Vic’s end, feeling guilty for surviving when Matthew died for Vic’s fuckup, and Vic witnessing first-hand what could have easily been done to himself. Trauma bonding! [what's interesting is that I hate the concept of martyrdom, so it's a little odd to dip into it here, but weirdly cathartic. A fun little addition is that, in the story, Freddy feels like he might as well have died in that accident, not only because it's another instance of being surrounded by death, but also because his coworkers have martyred him, and are treating him like he's already gone, twisting his accident into something it never was]

Towards the end of the story (draft #2) They’re supposed to be at the cabin for two weeks, then ditch Freddy on the road so he can walk the rest of the way. So, it comes as a hell of a surprise when, at dinner, Freddy starts freaking out, asking what they put in his food and drink. White is terrified because it reminds him a lot of what happened with Matty, and he knows that Freddy knows this, too, and that it’s probably adding to the kid’s panic. Joe just calmly remarks that it’s a sleeping aid, while Larry knows fucking better. Wants to take him to a hospital. Joe says no, they’re leaving, and that the kid will be out for several hours, so they can a head start. Larry is stunned, because Joe gave a longer timeline, gave his word, knew about what happened to the uncle all those years before. Joe gives Larry a choice; either Larry carries the kid down to the basement, or he has Vic throw him down from the top of the stairs. Larry makes to carry Freddy out the front door, when he’s knocked out. Coming to, he sees Eddie and Vic arguing, and Eddie shove Freddy down the stairs. A sickening snap, and Larry’s heart breaks.

Why Joe goes back on his word: Throughout the week, there’s multiple appearances of Matty that’s mistaken for Freddy. This time, it involves Joe waking in the middle of the night, seeing a figure standing outside the window, staring at him. There is no face, and Joe does his best to not look at it, terrified, then realizes, by the clothes, it must be Freddy. Looks down, sees the bag of loot beside him. Looks back up, and the figure is gone. He now thinks Freddy knows what they’ve got, might be looking to take it for himself. The next day, when he asks Larry, Freddy’s designated guard, if Freddy got out last night, he of course says no. ‘Are you sure? What about when you were asleep?’ Usually, Freddy’s on the couch and Larry sleeps in the chair, except last night, it would’ve been impossible for Freddy to sneak out; he and Larry fucked and cuddled together, falling asleep just like that. Larry doesn’t say all that, to not get either of them in trouble, and just says he knows for certain Freddy didn’t get out. This lack of detail leads to Joe being convinced of his earlier assumption.

Thrown down the stairs; the ultimate nightmare become reality. Has Hill House done it first? Yes. But, this ain’t sleep paralysis, so it’s just different enough. Freddy, fully paralyzed this time, can only blink, breathe, swallow, talk a little. Can’t move otherwise. His Uncle appears to him again, and says he can help him, but that king of power is costly. Freddy’s going to die, elsewise. Life for a life, help me kill Joe Cabot. Freddy doesn’t know who this is, because everyone’s using a codename. Matt takes it as, ‘so you want to hear my backstory?’ and we get the final (second-to-last?) flashback, of Vic and Joe in the basement with Matty’s body.

Creepy instance in chapter three: Brown, the cautious believer, sees ‘Freddy’ staring out the window. tries calling to him, but he doesn’t respond. Brown just goes to get some water, turns around, and Freddy’s gone… back to the couch. Sound asleep. He describes it to a POV character the next morning, and is brushed off as working himself up with all the local ghost nonsense.

Creep for chapter four roughly: Again, at night. but this time it’s Larry. He’s up, coming back from taking a piss or something. Goes by the kitchen, where he sees Freddy in his day clothes, bent over, front half hidden by the island counter. There’s the sound of pots and pans being shuffled about, but strangely Larry sees nothing moved, even as ‘Freddy’ motions something being moved. He tries asking what the kid’s looking for, getting silence. A few more words, and Freddy asks, sitting up on the couch, ‘who are you talking to?’ There’s the sound of something being unlatched, and the form begins to stand. Larry thinks he sees it out of the corner of his eye, his blood running cold, but it’s gone the moment he turns.

[next part will cover draft #1]

#reservoir dogs #fanfic #writers #writing #extras #nerdy shit #behind the scenes

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